A Comprehensive Guide to Alien Pwnage in CO

I recently read FreakEightyThree's guide for combat, and was awed by it's comprehensive coverage of all aspects of gameplay. However, today in a server, I was unable to join and stack the marine team as I usually do, and was forced to go aliens. Luckily, with my years of experience, I was able to achieve an astounding 5:1 kill ratio at the end of the game. I realized that others might not be so lucky, so I decided to do a writeup on how to be the star of any combat server.

Pre-Game:A large part about doing well is picking the right server. You want large, populated servers - the larger the better. This means aliens can continually rush the marines without having to worry about marines moving into a position to spawn camp them. Look for servers with lots of game-enhancing plugins, such as, but not limited to, spawn protection, xmenu, sporemines, buildmenu, lerkspikes, latejoin, gorgehook, and superlift. If possible at all, join a game that has been going on for awhile. This way you will be able to immediately go Onos and skip the boring parts. If you do not start with more than four points, you should go fade or lerk.

Early Game:This is when marines have the most advantage over aliens. Your priority at this point is to gain as many points as you can, as fast as you can. The best way to do this is to rush marines en masse, with you in the back of the group. That way, the skulks in front of you take all the damage, and marines are frantically trying to reload while you are able to just walk up to them and do a little Pac-Man routine. With any luck, you will be able to get a point or two. In the event you are unfortunately stuck with an uncooperative team, do not rush out alone as a skulk; instead, find a little vent or other hiding spot, and stay there to leech experience off kills made by other aliens.

Once you get one point, you are now faced with the dilemma of how to spend it. One recommended upgrade is cloaking, which makes you invisible. You just have to sit in one spot and wait for a marine to walk up to you - even the best marines cannot shoot what they cannot see. Other good upgrades are redemption, which will be useful when you go Fade or Onos, or Leap, which you can then upgrade into Xenocide in another two points. If the server has sporemines and/or gorgehook, going Gorge is also an excellent idea. You can just drop sporemines in highly trafficked areas, and sit back. If you are a good skulk or have a bugged hitbox, you should save up points so you can rush Fade and Onos.

Mid Game:This is when marines start getting shotguns and other advanced weaponry, with maybe some armor upgrades, and aliens should have a few higher lifeforms. At this point, you should be concerned with stopping marine advances through whatever means possible. Go lerk and spam gas at marines before they get heavies. If the server has lerkspikes, even better - you can sit back and continually attack marines without ever having to expose yourself to any weapons fire. Xenocide is also an excellent tactic, since you don't even need to aim bites and just need to be in the general vicinity of marines when you blow up, which isn't too hard on a large server. Whatever you choose to do, you should get redemption - it is an essential upgrade. Instead of having to pick your fights carefully to prevent dying, you can charge into marines regardless of how many there are, get a kill or two, then return at the hive.

Late Game:By this time, there will be jetpacks and heavy armors, and you should be close to getting all the upgrades possible. Your goal should be the Onos, the meatiest tank aliens possess. Upgrade Bloodlust if you are on an xmenu server (Which in all likelihood you are, since there are about 3, maybe 4 servers out there that don't have it) to gain infinite charge. Use stomp to paralyze marines without jetpacks so you can gore them at your leisure. Don't ever retreat - retreating is for cowards. Redemption is there for a reason, to eliminate the need for retreat. Brute force is the solution to everything, and if it is not working, then you are obviously not using enough.

Some servers have stupid plugins that attempt to "balance" the game by limiting the amount of fades and onoses a team can have, and your other less talented teammates might be taking up slots that are rightfully yours. But no worries, that can be easily circumvented! Stand in narrow hallways when they are attempting to retreat like the cowards they are and block their way. With any luck, redemption won't kick in, and they will die, freeing up a slot for you to go onos or fade.

If you are tired of waiting, don't worry! There are still lots of ways you can be a nuisance to the marines.

Skulk: Xenocide everything. Leap around aimlessly, it will make your hitbox lag so marines cannot easily kill you. In fact, this is an excellent way to determine who is aimbotting, because is it nigh-impossible to kill a leaping skulk in the air.

Gorge: Spam webs all over the place, and build OCs with buildmenu. Don't forget to permaweb marines that try to invade your precious hive, especially jetpackers. If the developers didn't intend it to be possible, they would've came out with a patch to fix it. You are practically invincible if you also get Bloodlust and Scent of Ancients, allowing you to get heal spray kills. If you follow up with a "lol pwnt" message or something similar, you will exact devastating psychological damage.

Lerk: Stand outside of the marine base and continually spore, umbra, and spike the marines. If approached by marines, stand your ground, don't fly away! It is just what the marine is expecting you to do. Instead, umbra yourself, and bite the marine instead. Umbra, combined with lagging hitboxes, means you'll almost certainly kill your target before they can kill you, even if they have perfect aim.

QUOTE (SmoodCroozn)

Don't bother posting, because it seems to me, you don't even know how the game works.

Well, yes, unfortunately it seems that "efficient" and "no skill" are pretty much interchangeable. Who needs to know how to fade properly when you can go onos with every upgrade in the game, plus some that aren't?

QUOTE (SmoodCroozn)

Don't bother posting, because it seems to me, you don't even know how the game works.

this is exactly how some people play CO. If you follow it, you will have fun, albeit at the expense of some of your teammates

The superonos is great, but I must also mention the superlerk. a cloaked, silenced, focused lerk is also a nearly unstoppable force unless marines get nade launchers. If you're careful to umbra religeously, nothing but nades will prevent you from getting kills

Skulk: Xenocide everything. Leap around aimlessly, it will make your hitbox lag so marines cannot easily kill you. In fact, this is an excellent way to determine who is aimbotting, because is it nigh-impossible to kill a leaping skulk in the air.

QUOTE

this is exactly how some people play CO. If you follow it, you will have fun, albeit at the expense of some of your teammates

That's me, and I stand by it. >:O I always thought xenociding 4 marines was helpful to my team though.

"Leap around aimlessly, it will make your hitbox lag so marines cannot easily kill you. In fact, this is an excellent way to determine who is aimbotting, because is it nigh-impossible to kill a leaping skulk in the air."